A Piece of Broken Recollection
by Gynednyssamm
Summary: It's the future! Earth's become more advanced, but these things come with unexpected consequences. A strange storm floats around the world causing strange occurrences and some children are caught in the crosshairs. More info inside! R&R! Ch. 5 up!
1. Weather Troubles

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other reference that I put in here. I only own the things that I make up!

I came up with the idea for this while watching Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society and a movie called Last Quarter. I'm not sure how they made me come up with a final fantasy 7 fanfic, but they did. Most of the ideas came from ghost in the shell though. There will be elements from that, but nothing having to do directly with it. I'll try to draw some pics for this, but I don't really know if I will or not. When I do I'll have a different link for this one and my other one.

**Things to know:** This story takes place in Earths future. We have a lot of different technological advances and I will get to them in the story. I'm going to make it about three hundred years in the future from now. I'm not giving us flying cars or anything like that. I don't want/need us to be that advanced. Most of the advances will be medically, weather wise, and efficiency wise. The net is going to be something like the ghost in the shell net. No ciberbrains though! Well there will be something like that, but not a real ciberbrain. I honestly don't think we could do that in 300 years...or ever in my lifetime for that matter.

* * *

Ch. 1 Weather troubles

Elle jumped up and down squealing with excitement. She could hardly contain herself. She had finally gotten all of them. Now that she actually liked video games she couldn't wait to play them all. This was something her brother had done. Before she had hated them and couldn't understand why he would spend all night playing them. Now she was a part of that and she played even more than he did.

She laughed at herself for that. It was funny that she had said that she hated them and now all she did was play them. "It is kind of ironic I guess. I said I'd never play one too." She said to herself while she opened all of the files.

Most of the games that she was playing now were really old. She knew they had updated versions of them all, but she wanted to play the originals. She realized that in the newer versions they lost some things. Parts of the story changed. She did not like that. After playing an original she decided that she had to play them all. Plus there was the fact that they were kind of rare now. Eventually they would disappear. It's how things go.

Of course her current obsession was the final fantasy series. The latest installment had gotten her into it. She knew there were a lot of them to play and that occupied a lot of her time. She didn't even know that a storm was coming until her mom yelled it at her. She had ignored her, but then realized that it could mess up her games. She still wanted to play though. "I've got plenty of time. It hasn't even hit land yet." She said. She intended to ignore her mother and keep playing until all of her family was shouting at her. She had already locked the door so no one could disturb her.

She sat in front of the computer for hours. She knew that even though there was a storm coming and they were telling everyone to evacuate her family wasn't going anywhere. They had not evacuated for anything. The few true disasters had hardly been anything. It was nothing like the ones of the past. There were things to prevent them now...things that actually worked.

Hours later...

"Elle, dinner's ready. You should come and eat." Her mother called through the door. Elle listened to her trying to open the door without success. "Honey! Unlock this door! If something happens we won't be able to get to you." She shouted. Elle ignored her again thinking that absolutely nothing could happen.

* * *

Meanwhile the storm headed for Florida was starting to worry a certain organization. In this day and age weather is something you don't worry about. The IWC takes care of everything weather related. The transition was hard on a lot of people. Meteorologists lost their jobs, but found that they could be useful and make a lot of money working at the IWC facility in the Atlantic. 

IWC stands for the International Weather Center. It was built a little over twenty-five years ago as an experiment. People had been trying for a long time to do what they were about to. They wanted to know if they could somehow force the weather to their will. A large and expensive facility was built in the ocean. Of course, there were certain measures taken to ensure workers safety. It took nearly ten years to complete the facility due to several attempts to snuff the project that nearly succeeded.

Each time it was nearly brought down they somehow managed to find the support to keep it running. They had the argument that they simply wanted to try it. It was a curiosity that caught the worlds attention. Most countries were onboard with it. Somehow that kept it going. They were all curious. Could it really be done? No one had ever truly succeeded on a global scale and that is exactly what they intended to do.

The first year of the project was difficult to say the least. There was opposition at every turn and someone on the inside set on bringing it down. After the first year they realized that they really had figured it out. They were actually controlling the weather. Their spy also realized this and even though it was a success and was helping people all over the world he could not accept it. There were quite a lot of people that felt the same. They could not handle the change even though it was a long wait. He still wanted to bring them down and in his mind he nearly did.

He committed a wide range of sabotage and got caught by the guards. It was something they were very prepared for. He had only thought he was sabotaging the real equipment, but he was wrong. That was safely tucked away in a place he could never get the authorization to enter. There was also the fact that he was not very stealthy about it. They caught him on tape and he was never seen again. He had little family and they were not close so no one missed him or even worried when he did not come home.

They had a simple operation there. Send your request through the net and a few days later get what you asked for. However, there was a filter in the system. Normally they only took requests from government leaders and certain organizations. It was part of the deal they had struck to build the facility in the first place. If they went beyond that they could snuff the IWC in an instant and turn it into something else.

On the first day they tested their filters. So many people were making direct requests that they had a special floor just for that. Teams would go through them and trash the bogus ones. The ones they could fill had to have certain credential or signatures. There were a few that were terrorist related and those were reported to the government immediately. Eventually the system did change into something better so they weren't sitting around reading emails. It was a bit of a waste of time.

This facility may be sponsored by most countries in the UN, but it was mainly a joint effort between the U.S. and Japan.

Two good friends had developed the idea and after taking it up with their governments for funding they decided that it would need to be some kind of joint venture. Otherwise, it would just go down the drain and someone else would more than likely pick up the pieces. Then they would never get the credit they deserved. They weren't greedy men, but they weren't stupid. They knew that if they weren't careful someone would steal their idea and they did take measures to take care of that. They were also smart enough to keep it secret. They did not want anyone else to find out about it. Their fellow scientists weren't too happy with that.

They eventually did get over it. They were left with no other choice. The IWC was doing so well after its fifth year no one disputed them anymore. People learned to accept it and lived with perfect weather all of the time. People slowly started to forget what it was like before. They were worry free and that caused people to get a little careless with more than just the weather.

Unexpected things did happen on occasion, but nothing big. It wasn't like a rogue hurricane was going to hit a major city or anything like that. They did make sure to do things that were good for the world in order to keep things as they should be. There were certain things that they just could not change and decided not to. There would only be problems if they did.

After twenty-five years of doing this they still had things to worry about. The head of IWC was starting to get worried about the storm looming over Florida. He knew that it was not something they had created. It would have shown up in the logs. He had already told a team to investigate the storm. They had yet to come up with an answer. So far they had no idea how it formed or why.

They were attempting to scan it to find out what it was made of, but there was some interference and they could not get a clear reading. They had been trying ever since it had been spotted. They worked around the clock here and just for things like this. It was a stain on their reputation.

"Sir." A girl said knocking on the door. He waved her in and she came in laying a folder on his desk. "Here is the report you asked for." She said before leaving. She was a shy girl and felt very intimidated by him. He was head of the IWC after all.

"Thank you." He said in response. He stared at the screen watching the storm progress through the satellites eyes. He frowned and then picked up the report. He knew it couldn't be good news. That is something this day had been greatly lacking. He looked it over and found that they had only managed to map out thirty percent of it with little success and accuracy. It was still a very distorted picture of the storm. It was all they could manage though. He was not about to punish them for that.

"This confirms that this was not made by us. It formed on its own. Even if this is just a system malfunction there is no way that it would make something that big." From what he had read the thirty percent that they had mapped out was about ten miles of storm around one half of the perimeter. _There is just no way!_

* * *

Elle continued to play and now she could hear the storm outside. The booms from the thunder made her jump. She really did hate storms like this. It made it hard for her to concentrate on the game. She was playing final fantasy seven at the moment. According to her brother and several chat rooms on the net it was the best. She knew that her brother would not lie about that. 

BOOM!

She jumped at the sound and squeezed the controller a little. She let out a little squeal and then shook it off knowing that she should get ready to quit playing. She could save at any time since it was so old. The system it came on didn't even exist anymore. Unless you were one of those weird collectors that has all of the old systems plus some other weird old things. _I'll never be one of those people._ She thought. She did not want to get weird looks from her friends.

She had already been playing long enough to reach Calm for the first time and start the story of what happened in Nibelheim. They were just about ready to go to the reactor with their guide. It was Tifa and she already thought she was an annoying character. Elle really couldn't stand her. Some photographer asked for a picture and she had to pause the game for a moment.

The storm was starting to scare her a little. The thunder most of all. At the door she heard her mother shouting at her. "Elle! Hurry up! We're going to wait out the storm in the basement." She said. Elle saved, but was not quite ready to stop playing. She wanted to get past all this talking and get to the mountain before quitting.

BOOM!

Again she jumped and she heard her mother banging on the door threatening to get her father to break it down. "Hold on, mom! I'll be out in a minute!" She shouted back. This seemed to help a little bit and she backed off. Elle continued and watched them get ready for the picture. She briefly looked outside and noticed that the storm was a lot closer than she had thought. _It's right over us now._ Her attention went back to the game. They were about to take the picture.

When they did there was another boom followed by crack. Elle felt a lot of pain throughout her body. Her hands were clenching the game controller and though she was starting to see white around the edges of her vision she did notice that the game was frozen. _Great! I'm going to die like this?_

Her body started convulsing and without even realizing it she had been screaming from the pain. It alerted everyone in the house that she was in trouble. _I guess this...is what I get...for not listening to mom..._

Outside her room her parents and brother ran to her door to see what the problem was. They had heard the crack and knew that lightning had struck nearby. Her father tried the door, but found it locked. _What is wrong with that girl locking the door like that._ He thought while he kicked it open. His heart nearly stopped when he saw her lying on the bed unconscious. "Elle!" He ran to her and sat her up. He had to pry her hands off of the controller leaving behind some skin.

Her mother and brother stood by the door gaping at her. They could not believe what they were seeing. Her brother was the only one to notice that the computer was still on and the game was still trying to go. "Jason. Take care of that will you." His mother whispered. She had just noticed, but barely. She could not take her eyes off Elle. Her father was picking her up and he wrapped her in her blanket because of the rain.

Jason looked outside and noticed that the storm was subsiding. It was almost as if it had come there just to do that to her. _You've done your damage...haven't you._ He thought glaring at it. He went to do as he was told and hesitated to pick it up. He could see her skin on it and cringed. It was not something he would normally do, but today was different. He slowly picked it up and started peeling some skin off to make it easier on himself.

The game was still frozen so it took some time for him to make it run again. He saved and then rushed to the living room. All he could do now was sit and wait to find out if she was alright or not.

**Author:** Ok. So there it is. The first chapter of my new fic! Chapter 2 will explain things a little better. There is just a lot to get in and I didn't want it all in the first chapter. I don't know how far I want to go with this. I don't think I'll be updating this weekly. This story requires me to think and I hardly have the time to do that right now. I'll probably update every other week or maybe a little later than that depending on when I can have the chapters ready.


	2. After the Storm

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other reference that I put in here. I only own the things that I make up!

Ch. 2 After the Storm

Elle's parents rushed her out to the car. Both of them were worried about her, but knew that it would be very difficult to get her to the hospital. It was across town and there was still a lot of traffic from the evacuation. They were suppose to have left before today since it was suppose to make land today.

Like most people nowadays they had no plan. There was one in place for something like this, but no one was really prepared. Many of them had forgotten what a disaster really was. Disasters were just something that did not happen.

They found that no matter what people were told to do a few idiots on the road was enough to make a huge traffic jam. It made it almost impossible for anyone to go anywhere. Her parents thought that by taking side roads they would get there faster, but even they were packed with cars. Her father cursed over and over ignoring the looks from his wife. She did not approve of that and got onto them all for it. They actually had a swear jar and he had a lot of money in it.

At the moment she was not too worried about what he was saying. She kept looking at her daughter unconscious in the backseat. She wiped away the tears and found herself cursing at the other drivers. She eventually just rolled down the window and started yelling at anyone and everyone. He looked at her and smiled. For once, maybe she would add some money to the jar.

"Move your ass, you idiot!" She yelled a few times. There were only a few people with their windows down around them and they were giving her odd looks. She didn't care. Her daughter was hurt and they could shove it for all she cared.

"Jeez lady! What's your problem?" Someone finally said. They couldn't see Elle in the backseat or the tears in her eyes. They could see that her father was driving pretty aggressively and they were trying to force their way over. Some people let them in hoping for a peaceful end to this.

"I'm trying to get to the hospital and so help me if my baby dies I'll blame all of you!!!" She said glaring at him. Her eyes were swollen from crying so hard and she could hardly speak at all. The display scared most of the people who saw and heard her.

"Is it really that bad?" He asked. He looked up at the sky and noticed that the storm was nearly gone. He could hardly believe it. It had looked so menacing and from the news reports he had seen it was big and they could hardly tell what it was. "The storm is almost gone." He said in awe.

"Who cares about the damn storm! My daughter got electrocuted!" She yelled back. She hated that storm and was glad that it was gone. Her only priority now was getting Elle some help and they were still quite a ways from the hospital. It was the only one in their area that they knew could handle this type of problem. They also knew that this was the only way to get her there. They would only have a skeleton staff by now.

"Sorry, but doesn't look like we're moving at all." He replied a little afraid of what her response might be. He only had his wife with him and she looked scared enough.

"If we could get over to the shoulder maybe we could get by everyone." Her husband said. She thought it might be a good idea. They were a lane away from it and they had not idea what it looked like on the shoulder. She decided to ask him and his wife looked out the window. They were on a slight curve so that made it a little difficult to see.

"It looks clear most of the way." She said. He told them and they really started to force their way over. It gave them some hope that maybe they would be able to get her some help a lot sooner than later. They had no idea what kind of damage the shock could have done to her.

It took almost twenty minutes for them to get in to the next lane and by the time they got there they were not the only ones with that idea. Someone else had decided they wanted to use the shoulder as well and they weren't about to stop for them. They waited thinking about poor Elle. If they got in an accident now they might never get her any help. All of them would need help.

They got onto the shoulder and many people behind them followed suit. It was not something they liked since the people behind them were also in a hurry. Elle's mom was getting annoyed with them. They were getting a little too close to the car and she was about ready to yell at them. She was growling at them, but decided not to lean out the window again. It would be a little dangerous at the moment. The only reason no one had passed them is because of the ditch.

It wasn't very far to the end of that road and they had to turn onto another hoping that as they got closer things would be easier. In a way their thinking was right. Everyone was trying to get out of town and those that realized the storm was dissipating were trying to turn around and go back home. The roads closer to the hospital were a lot clearer and it only took them about forty-five minutes to get there.

Once they did they ran in with Elle and banged on the bell trying to get someone to come and help them. "Hello?!" Her mom said over and over. "Where the hell is everyone."

"You know...you're going to have to put a lot of money in that jar when we get back." Her husband said mischievously. She glared at him and that shut him up. After a few minutes someone came in.

"Sorry for the wait. There are only a few of us left here. We had someone we couldn't move giving us some problems." She said trying to sound cheerful. "How can I help you?" She said after gathering some things. Both of them started talking at once and she could see Elle unconscious in her fathers arms. "I can see that she needs some help. Why don't you sit down and fill this out. I'll go get a doctor to help you." She said quickly.

They did as she asked and tried hard to calm down. They were a little panicked at the moment. Her mom had to fill out the papers and she could hardly see so he ended up reading most of it to her. Finally the girl returned with a doctor and a stretcher for Elle. They were both very relieved to see her finally getting some help.

"How long has she been like this?" The doctor asked.

"Over an hour. That's about how long it took us to get here with all the traffic." The doctor wrote it down and asked the girl to bring the papers once they were done filling them out. "I'll come get you after we know more."

* * *

Elle woke up to something she definitely did not expect. She thought she had died and was going to whatever afterlife there was. What she was looking at now was not that at all. She thought maybe it was some kind of dream and that if she woke up everything would go back to normal. 

"Maybe I've been playing too many videogames." She said. She was standing next to Sephiroth and Cloud and they were all looking at a cameraman taking their picture. She was in Nibelheim. Everyone in the area was frozen. She appeared to be the only person that could move. She walked around and touched the buildings and found them real enough. The people too seemed to be real. It suddenly occurred to her that something was off. It wasn't anything around her. It was her.

She looked at herself and could not remember wearing those clothes. They had to belong to someone else. She noticed that she had a purse and looked through it to find a mirror. She was glad to have one, but what she saw did not make her happy.

"I don't believe this! I'm TIFA?!!!!" She shouted in shock. "How did this happen?" She said still starring into the mirror. She found it almost impossible to look away and very hard to believe. Even after seeing all of this the part where it was all a dream was very appealing to her. She did not want to believe that somehow she had gotten stuck in the game. No one was playing and the game appeared to be frozen. "Now what do I do?"

She just wandered around in utter frustration. She just could not believe that something this ridiculous was happening. She kept looking around for something...anything that would tell her it was a dream. Unfortunately there was nothing for her to find. She finally gave up and sat down pouting. There was nothing she could do as far as she knew. Someone would have to play the game to make anything happen.

She looked around aimlessly and noticed that something new was there. It was a little menu. She instantly recognized it as the save menu. There were two ways to save. One was in the game itself and the other was in the net. It was stored on her server. That's what someone was doing. She guessed that it might be her brother. She got mad when he turned off her game without saving. It was the only time he ever saw her really mad.

After that was gone she noticed a number of things start to happen. Everything became dim. The sky started to disappear and turn black. She strained her eyes to really see what was happening. The sky turned into a bunch of numbers before becoming a black mass above her. After that everything outside the area she was in did the same as the sky. In a matter of seconds it was gone and the area around her went after it.

At first she was unsure what to think Then it occurred to her that her brother had turned off the game. This was the result of that action from the inside. The data was being moved to wherever it was stored. It made her wonder what was going to happen to her once she started to disappear. It was starting to scare her. She really had no idea would happen and she could not imagine anything good. Then again she did not have a very big imagination to begin with.

One by one the people around her started to disappear into nothingness. She knew that there was nothing she could do and eventually it was going to happen to her. She watched as Sephiroth was the last one to go before her. It took a second for her to realize that she was now starting to disappear. She hadn't felt anything.

It started in her hands and then she noticed that her legs were disappearing as well. She closed her eyes unable to watch herself disappear like that. It was hard enough to know that it was happening. She had seen it happen to everyone else so she was well aware of what was happening. She kept her eyes closed for a little bit and then opened them wondering what she was going to see.

She started by looking at herself. There was just a ghost image of herself left now. _So I guess that I didn't completely disappear. Just Tifa's body did. _She thought. She looked around. She was in what appeared to be a large corridor. The floor was black and there was a net of green lights pulsing above her. Every once in a while they would go off into another corridor and from there it was red. It seemed to go on forever in every direction. She didn't bother to pay attention to them.

She also noticed that there were other things wandering the corridors with her. They were videogame characters. They all ignored her. No matter how much she tried to get them to notice her nothing would happen. They just walked around for a while in a little area that she guessed was designated for them. "I guess this is where the game data is all stored. Looks like all the games I've played." She said.

It suddenly occurred to her why the color changed when the reached the side corridors. They represented dormant data. The green lights were taking the data to computers all over the world and she guessed that each one had a storage space that looked exactly like this. She sat down for a minute to collect herself. All of this was very interesting, but it was also very overwhelming. It was too much for her to take at the moment. She decided to take a nap for now and wait for something to happen.

**Author:** Well...there you go. My own representation of what storage on the net is like. I'll get to the rest of it eventually. Well...now you know what happened to her...sort of.


	3. Data Transfer

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other reference that I put in here. I only own the things that I make up!

Ch. 3 Data Transfer

After what seemed like a long wait the doctor finally returned. He made sure to smile and all that to keep them content. He did not want to worry them, but he was a little bit worried about the situation. They had never had anything like this happen.

"She is doing well now. She has not regained consciousness." He said. He was holding Elle's file and tapping it uncontrollably. "We looked at her records...she was the first to have full body prosthetics am I correct?" They both nodded. They were happy that she was fine, but they still looked worried. "It might take some time for her to regain consciousness. Her brain data is slightly deteriorated. She may lose some memory." He said calmly as if it were nothing. They both felt otherwise.

"How much memory loss should we expect?" Her father said.

"Not much...it is to be expected though. It is a hazard for those with prosthetics like hers." He said trying to assure them that there was almost nothing wrong. He was not sure what was going to happen when Elle woke up.

They both went in to see her. They wanted to talk to her, but she was sleeping. Her mother sat beside her bed crying and wiping her eyes. Her father held her hand silently praying that she be alright. She looked fine from their point of view, but they couldn't actually see what was going on in her head or otherwise. They had not seen the scans of her brain.

Outside the doctor was conferring with a more qualified physician. It was the doctor that had done the data transfer and given her the prosthetic body. In other words...Elle didn't really exist anymore.

"I'm sending you a copy of the scan." The doctor said. _I hope I'm wrong or she might never wake up._ He waited for a few minutes so he would have time to look over the scan. After a few minutes he heard a gasp on the phone. "Well?"

_"Are you sure this is correct." _He said almost shouting. Obviously he thought that this was very wrong. All he could do was answer yes and wait for the answer. _"If this is right then Her data is missing, but it looks like there is some kind of anomaly in the data. There is dormant data where hers should be." _He said sounding a little confused.

"How could something like that happen? How could there be an anomaly like that?" Neither of them could understand it. It had never happened before to anyone. "She was electrocuted and we still aren't sure how that will affect her later on."

_"If she wakes up. There might be a chance that when she wakes up she won't be the same person...if she responds at all." _He sighed and took a few moments to think. _"Keep her there. I'm going to come in myself and have a look at her."_ He said before hanging up. The doctor put down the phone and looked over at her room. This had him very concerned and he was not sure how her family would react to that sort of information.

He went in to see how things were going and found them in the same exact position he had left them in. She was no better and they were both crying. "When can we take her home?" Her father asked.

"We would like her to wake up before considering that. We aren't entirely sure how this is going to affect her. We want her to stay here until we are completely sure she is ok." He paused for a moment. He could see that he was only making them feel worse about this. "It is just a precaution." He said.

"How long do you think that will take?" Her father asked still unsure about this.

"It's hard to say." He said. Before they could question him further a nurse came in and whispered something to him. "You'll have to forgive me, but I must go attend to something. Try not to worry too much." He was actually glad to leave. They were starting to ask a lot of complicated questions that he didn't want to answer.

* * *

Elle woke up not really knowing how much time had passed. Things here changed little since there was no one playing her games. She looked up to find all of the final fantasy seven characters there. She did notice something a little bit off though. Tifa wasn't moving like the rest. She just sat on the ground like a lump. Elle couldn't see anything wrong with her. She decided to ignore it for now. They were all just made up of data anyway.

_It's not like they really matter._ She thought. She got bored of being there and decided to see where else she could go. She made her way back to the long corridor and decided to keep going. She walked on for a long time still seeing things she knew were stored inside her computer. After a while she reached a wall of sorts. Something that looked like a door was also there. All of the lights around her went there forming the door shape. She lightly touched it hesitating a little bit.

She had no idea if it could hurt her or not. Part of her thought maybe it would and she could die completely. That worried her, but not enough to stop her from trying. She found that it did not hurt, but she could not push past it whatsoever. She guessed that if someone were using the data then maybe she could. With that curiosity satisfied she went the other direction. Everything still looked the same.

She walked until she was back with the final fantasy seven characters. Tifa still sat there unmoved. Something about that was now beginning to worry her. Elle was not sure what that meant, but she knew it had something to do with the fact that she was here. Although now she did notice something else. Tifa was not the only one not moving. She went closer and found Cloud sitting down with dim eyes.

"Did it happen again?" She said looking around. She did not see anyone else there with her so she guessed if they were stuck like her they were stuck in their own computer, but this event affects all of the characters no matter what computer the data is stored on. It all comes from the same place. It's originally stored on the net, but the save go to the user's computer. "I guess I don't get anyone to talk to." She said grimly. She did not wish this on anyone, but she wanted to talk about it to someone.

She actually wondered if they would meet when someone played the game or not. If they could then maybe they could start to figure it out. What was going on and how could this possibly happen? Those were the most prevalent questions in her mind at the moment. She found herself sitting down too unable to really do anything else. She guessed that no one in her family was going to play on her computer.

She was actually wondering what they were doing. Was her body still out there and was she ok? She sighed and then pulled her legs in close to her. She felt kind of isolated right now. _Can't leave, and there is nothing to do. If only I were like them while here. They don't think or worry._ She thought watching the characters aimlessly walk around in the small area. It was all they could do. Here they weren't playing the game so they had nothing to do. No life at all.

**Author:** Slowly it moves along. I don't know why this one seems so difficult for me to write. Maybe it's just all the things I would like to do with it that don't seem to pan out. In the next one expect the new doctor to show up and someone plays the game (of course). Can't have her trapped in there forever bored to death.


	4. To die and live again

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other reference that I put in here. I only own the things that I make up!

Ch. 4 To die and live again

In the hospital Elle's parents waited all night sleeping at her bedside. They just did not want to leave her right now even though they knew her brother was still at home by himself. They had called and left a message for him. At least that way he was aware of what was going on and they could tell him what he should be doing. They were going to call him every so often just to see how he was doing. They had no idea how long Elle was going to sleep. They did not want to leave her in their care just yet.

The doctors were trying to wait patiently for the specialist to arrive, but they were feeling a little more worried about the girl. Now that they had actually confirmed that something really was wrong with her they actually had reason to worry. They just hoped that there was something that they could do to fix it. The doctor hoped he could actually figure out what was wrong. He was catching an early morning flight and would be there in the afternoon. He was going to call once the plane landed just in case there was any change, but all of them doubted there would be.

There had been absolutely no change all night long and someone had been monitoring her the entire time. They were almost wondering if she was even going to wake up at all anyway. From the readings they were getting she was neither asleep or awake. It was very disconcerting. They weren't exactly sure what they were going to tell her parents once he arrived. None of them could imagine that going well. They seemed to be at wits end now and this, they thought, must feel like a repeat of her first hospitalization.

* * *

Elle was only five at the time. She was playing outside in the yard where they first lived. It wasn't exactly the best place to raise a family, but they were making it work. Her mother stood on the porch watching her play. Her father was at work. Everything seemed fine. Things were fine for the most part. Nothing appeared wrong, but life has a way of doing that. It can trick you into thinking everything is alright when it really isn't.

Her mother suddenly got an odd feeling. She suddenly felt that something was about to happen and not something good. She stood up and looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary. For a moment the feeling subsided and she sat down. Elle was moving slowly a little closer to the street and she had noticed. "Elle." She shouted. "Don't get so close." She said. At that moment it happened.

She watched something horrible happen and to her it was slow motion. She screamed and it seemed to last forever. She could not stop and she could not seem to move. It mattered little though. She knew there was nothing she could do. It would be over before she could even leave the porch.

Elle disappeared as the car veered off the road. She screamed and it was cut short very quickly. It knocked her to the ground and continued the passenger side wheels going over her body. The driver tried to stop and tried to avoid her, but panic had set in and she did all of the wrong things. When she stopped she sat there for a moment trying to breathe. Then she hurriedly opened the door forgetting to take off her seat belt. After tangling with that she ran to the back of her car fearing what she might find.

As she reached it she head a loud and painful cry come from the house. She looked up and saw Elle's mother on her knees. She painfully went over to Elle and kneeled beside her. She reached out shaking thinking that there was no way she could be alive. She reached for her wrist trying to find a pulse. Anything. She was relieved to feel something, but she had no idea how long that was going to last.

She remembered that her phone was in the car and she saw her mother running over to her. She was going to take care of calling for an ambulance. She was shaking and could hardly dial the number and explain the situation. She was so shaken and worried that she did not really care about the penalty she might have to pay for this happening. She had hurt her, run her over, and she could die. That realization alone made her collapse and cry. She was just sitting on the ground leaning against the car door.

Elle's mother kneeled beside her sobbing uncontrollably. She could hardly think and had no idea what was going on around her. The world was silent and all she could do was cry and fret over her. The whole experience was numbing. She was afraid for her and had no idea what would happen. She faintly heard the sounds of someone else crying and talking, but she ignored them.

Ten minutes later sirens rang out as they approached the scene. No one had moved an inch. Elle was lying face down on the ground in the same position and her mother was afraid of touching her. They moved her away from Elle and carefully put her on the stretcher. Of course, she was going to ride in the ambulance with her daughter. The driver let them help her up and they put her in a car to take her to the hospital. She needed to be checked out as well even though there were no visible injuries.

It had taken her forever to regain her composure. That is when she called her husband at work to tell him what had happened. She teared up while doing that and he told her that he would be there soon. It was not very comforting for her. Once the doctors decided there was nothing they could do they gave up. Her parents begged them to find something...anything that could save her. They told them there was only one option and it was not guaranteed. It was not a tested procedure yet and they were sketchy on the details. Something like that had never been done before.

Her parents did not care what it was. It was something that they were very willing to try. Her mother especially did not want to lose Elle. Her father knew that losing her would be very hard and decided to try. They were going to lose her anyway. This could help someone else in this sort of situation.

* * *

This was the same hospital. It was not the same situation, but they had waited for days for her to wake up. It took a day for all of her data to be configured and then a day or two to upload it to her new brain. The person lying in the bed was not even real, but the way they felt sure was. This was very painful for them and the first procedure to save her life had been a success. They were going to remember the man that had designed everything. The first thing they had thought of was just getting them out of the room long enough for him to see her. They just did not want to worry them more.

He finally arrived and the doctor rushed out to meet him and explain things to him. He understood there reason for discretion. He remembered the family well and had not forgotten the strong reactions they exhibited. He understood telling them it was best they not see him right now.

It was hard to arrange. They refused to leave, but they were in luck. The nurse was a smooth talker and she convinced them to leave long enough for him to come in. She was to go with them to make sure they did not come back early.

He went in and checked out everything. He went slow checking the readings while having a look at her. The doctors just stood outside watching. None of them wanted to get in the way.

* * *

Meanwhile, Elle woke up to a buzzing sound. She got up and looked around. She did not see anything out of the ordinary, but the characters were acting different. Each of them walked towards the hallway. Vincent reached it first and instead of walking on he turned into a streak of light zooming off to the right. She guessed this meant someone was playing the game now. It also made her wonder what exactly would that be like for her.

She couldn't see Tifa anywhere. Looking at herself she realized that she had already taken over her body. For now she was in charge, but she got the feeling that would not last long. She was right of course and a few moments later she was following the others. Part of her felt a little bit of panic. She did not like the feeling that she wasn't in control of herself. She was the last one to reach the hallway.

As soon as she did she was blinded by light and she felt energized. She definitely felt like she was flying off somewhere. She had no idea what she might see when the game started. Her brother had a file too and he was further than her. He had mentioned that he might want to play when she downloaded it. He had lost a lot of things when the computer crashed and some of his games were among them. She guessed she would get to further the story, but she wondered how big a gap there was going to be.

A few seconds later she could see again. Everyone was standing in the middle of a town. She could see a large building and she only knew where they were thanks to the conversation. They were in Junon. She remembered her brother telling her about it when he played it for the first time. He really hated this part of the game. She knew that he must be angry having to start from right here.

She listened and talked when she was suppose to and then faded as the main character walked around town and did stuff. She really did not care about what he was doing. She was interested in the story not his wanderings. Finally he went to a different area and for a moment or two everything was dark. They were by the water watching some girl play with a dolphin. A monster came and ruined that so they went to fight it. She was actually glad that she was not in his party. It looked a little scary from this angle.

After the fight they were all there standing around the girl and they were telling Cloud to give her CPR. She thought it was kind of funny. She noticed that he really did not want to do it. There was something about his eyes that caught her attention. They looked different from what she had seen before. He was different. _Wait. He was acting strange before. Someone must be in there just like me. Now I wish my brother would pause the game!_

She got her wish and before CPR began he paused. She gave a sigh of relief finally able to move on her own. Cloud seemed to be doing the same thing, but was shocked to see her doing so as well. "So I'm not the only one!" He said. She just shook her head. "What happened to you?" He asked. She gave him the very short story and then was surprised to hear almost the same thing. "That storm suddenly appeared off the coast and came right at us." He said.

"Same happened to me. I wonder why." She said.

"I've been thinking about that. I'm not sure if the IWC is doing this. They aren't allowed to have rogue storms like that. I think the storm formed on its own." He said.

"Maybe, but how would it be that big?" He just shrugged.

"I'm not sure." He said thinking. He suddenly seemed to realize something and started apologizing. "Sorry, got so excited to know I wasn't alone here I forgot my manors. I'm Henry." He said offering his hand.

She shook it feeling a bit awkward. "Elle." She said. He gave her a weird look, but said nothing. "You think I have a weird name."

"No, not really."

"So now all we need to do is figure out how to get out of here."

"I don't know. I'm guessing that the shock from the storm fried my circuits or something. I guess since anyone with full prosthetics is connected to the net this happened." He said.

"Wait! You have a full prosthetic body?" He nodded.

"Don't you? It explains why we would be here. Although technically this should be impossible." He said. She just shook her head no.

"I don't have a prosthetic body! I'd know if I did." she said angrily.

"Would you really? It feels the same as my body did before. I wouldn't be able to tell the difference if my parents hadn't told me. I guess that your parents decided to keep you in the dark about it."

"They wouldn't do that!"

"How do you know?" He said. "Your memory could be altered. You would never remember whatever happened to get you that body." He told her. She turned away wanting to cry. _He can't be right about this!_ She told herself. It was a horrible thing to hide from her. "It's not all that bad." He said feeling bad. "It just means that they love you. They did this because they did not want to lose you."

"They didn't have to lie."

"You may have been too young." He said shrugging. "It could've been anything."

Finally the game unpaused and they continued with the game playing their roles. She got to watch Henry give that girl CPR. She laughed a little seeing his discomfort. It made her feel better after everything he had said. She still wanted to cry and it made her wonder about something. _Does my brother know_

**Author:** Now there are two of them. They aren't completely alone anymore. Sickness and laziness keep this story going slow. My other story is my baby. this was just an idea, but yay if anyone likes it. I'll take any reviews and promptly only pay attention to the good ones while laughing at the bad ones. (Cause they are just too funny.)


	5. Who am I

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other reference that I put in here. I only own the things that I make up!

Ch. 5 Who am I

In the hospital Elle's parents hovered around her room wondering why all of the sudden they weren't allowed to go inside. It seemed to them that nothing had changed, but soon after the specialist arrived they had been told to wait. It had been a day already and they were getting worried. From what they could tell she was still unconscious. It worried them. Did this mean she might never wake up? And...would she ever be the same?

Inside the room the specialist was still at a loss. It seemed to him that she should be awake. The machines showed there was activity in the brain, however, he could get no response whatsoever from her. Her brain was a computer processor that acted as a place to hold her data and it constantly recorded data and stored it in a remote location, but ever since the incident no data was being stored there. Not even dormant data. It looked to him like the shock had probably knocked out one of the firewalls meant to protect from this kind of thing. With that down it meant that any number of things could have happened. If something had lost a connection or one was destroyed they would have to remove it and spend time fixing it before she could even function. What worried him was something else. The readings were strange. 

Everything about this is wrong. This anomaly could mean anything and right now it looks like if she wakes up she will be someone else entirely.

He was wondering where her data could have gone and how it would have left the confines of the processor in the first place. _This data is very different from hers. Who will you be?_

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. He turned around peering through the small window. He hoped it was his colleague. He was not the only person who worked on this particular individual so he hoped they might give him some insight. It was the nurse, but he could see past her was another man. He was talking with the parents. He gave her the ok to let him in and turned back to the monitors.

"So I see you're having trouble, Itaku. Well, you aren't the only one." He said as he entered the room.

"I'm just hoping the circuits aren't fried. If so then we may have to start over."

"I don't think so." The man replied. "I just got a call from another hospital. We have another one. This time a boy a little older than her." He whipped around with wide eyes. "I sent someone to see him already. If they're the same then they're connected. If not then we're on our own here."

"Was there a storm?"

"Yes it's moving all over the place. The IWC is moving slowly from what I hear. I bet they're in an uproar over this."

"Probably. Well, you can have a look. Can't do much at the moment. We need to move her, but I'm not sure how she will react."

"I've been going over what you sent me. From what I can tell...everything looks fine. By all means, she should be awake right now."

"The anomaly..." He said thinking.

"Yes...that..." He paused looking through his briefcase for the data. "It is strange isn't it? I'd like to compare it with previous readings and also do the same with the boys. I mentioned it to them. I asked them to send over everything they found."

"That will take some time."

"Well, I think I'll chat with the parents for a few minutes. Maybe their account of what happened can shed a little light on this." He was thinking. "Have you spoken to them at all?"

"Not since it was done years ago." Itaku replied. "This is the third time I've seen her since."

"That's just like you, always wrapped up in your work."

"Yes, I suppose. But there are still things we don't know about using cybernetic prosthetics. Some of the strange things that occur during and after the process are puzzling to say the least." He said still looking at the readings.

"I'll be back" Itaku barely heard him.

Outside the parents were both watching the door intently and waiting quite impatiently. Both were anxious, nervous, and worried. Now there were two of them in there with their daughter. When one of them came out he was berated with questions about her condition and what they were going to do. He simply let them ask and waited for them to calm down a bit asking them to have a seat.

"I'm Ardet Lamasu a cyber-engineer and a friend of Itaku. I also worked closely with him when we did the procedure to transfer her data and gave her full prosthetics. Listen; at this point there is nothing to worry about. We have to move delicately. It appears that in a sense she is in a sort of coma. The shock probably knocked out a circuit and until we find the cause it's likely she won't wake up. However, I will be honest. There seems to be an anomaly in the data, but at this point it's hard to say if it's bad. It could be merely a discrepancy in the readings. Right now, we need you to be patient with us. This technology is still quite new even with the number of years we have been working with it. There are still things we don't know so bear with us."

"Mr. Lamasu, please do what you can. We already lost her once...I don't think we could bear to lose her again." Her father said. Her mother remained silent, but she was visibly shaken. This ordeal reminded them of their first encounter with Itaku Naozaki. Their meeting then had been very brief so until they heard the name they had almost not recognized the man that saved Elle. "We appreciate all you did for us then so please..."

"It's going to be fine. I'll do my best to keep you informed." He said smiling slightly. "There's also something I'd like you to do for me, if you're up to it." They both nodded slightly. "Good. Can you tell me what happened? Every little detail is important. It might tell us more about her condition."

They started confirming most of what they had already known. The storm arrived quickly and she received a shock when lightning struck the house. None of them had seen it happen so that part was a bit fuzzy. "She wouldn't listen to us. We tried to get her away from the computer and that game she was playing." Her mom said crying.

"We heard her scream and immediately went to her room. She locked the door so I broke in and found her lying on the bed unconscious. Then we immediately brought her here."

"I see..." He thanked them and returned to the room. "We have to find out what happened the moment they received the shock." He said thinking out loud. Itaku turned to him.

"Yes that is a hole in the story right now." Itaku replied absently. Suddenly the machines started beeping. Both of them rushed forward to see. The nurse came in as well worried. It had set off their alarm. "What's this? A spike in brain activity?"

"Perhaps she can hear us?" Ardet said wondering. "The data seems to have changed again."

They looked at her and realized that the nurse was attempting to strap her down because her body suddenly began convulsing. They both helped. Falling from the bed could create more trauma and issues for them to fix. They already knew that they needed to fix the skin on her hands. There was only a small burn on them where the electricity had entered her body.

Her eyes flew open and she started struggling against the restraints. The readings had them both wondering. Was she really awake? Was it even her? Ardet tried to calm her while Itaku examined the data. What he saw had him perplexed. He had been comparing it to some of the previous data and now seeing this he could see a similarity, but this data was not of Elle. It read as a totally different person. _Can that be right? Is it someone else who's awoken in her body?_

"Let go! Take these off! I have to go!" She was shouting. She suddenly paused and looked around. "What's going on?"

"Elle, listen to me. I'm Ardet Lamasu, please calm down. You were in an accident and brought to the hospital." He said. This seemed to aggravate her even more.

"Who? That's not..."

"Ardet!" Itaku interrupted her and grabbed his arm pulling him around to show him the comparison data. "This is...not her data." He said looking almost shocked.

"Then who?" They both looked at her feeling confused and concerned. If that were true then where was Elle?

"Look I don't know what is going on, but where are my friends? They need me! And why the hell does my voice sound like this?" She stated. Outside they could hear commotion and the nurse ran to the door to look.

"They must have heard her. What do we do?" She said looking at the engineers for answers.

"Don't let them in!" Itaku said. "That will only cause more confusion. Listen, please be patient. We need to run some tests before you can be allowed to go anywhere." She groaned and clenched her fists. In her mind this was ridiculous and unnecessary. She was confused though. Who were they talking about and why was she really in this place. _Where is everyone?_ That was her foremost thought. At a time like this wouldn't they all be there with her. _Is that the commotion outside?_

Ardet andItaku were huddled together by the computers whispering to each other about this situation. "This data is female. Early twenties maybe. It looks like that is the anomaly we were seeing. It was data from someone else as I feared." Itaku said.

"Yes it seems that way. We need to find out who she is and what she remembers. Perhaps that will help us find Elle's missing data so we can put them back where they should be." They both nodded and turned around gazing at the frustrated looking girl before them. She looked like Elle, sounded like her, but obviously was not her.

**Author:** Wow has this one been on a long hiatus. So much has been going on I haven't really had much time to write on my fics. But I will try and update this one more often.


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